National Highways recorded 814 incursions into roadworks on its network between January and the end of July this year and warned that an increasing proportion were deliberate.

More than half of incursions (53%) now involve drivers trying to avoid queues, closures or diversions, up from 47% in 2020. Other incidents involved factors such as breakdowns or unintentional incursions.

When broken down by region, the figures showed a wide variety, with the North West recording 25% of incidents as deliberate, rising to 67% in Yorkshire and the North East.

Melanie Clarke, the director of health, safety and wellbeing at National Highways, told the Guardian newspaper that 'a worrying number of drivers [are] wilfully ignoring roadworks to save time, putting road workers and other people at risk'.

Ms Clarke said: 'This year alone there have been over 400 incidents of those "seeking benefits", as we describe it. We are definitely seeing a rise. We really encourage our road workers to report these instances so we can understand the level of the risk that they are facing when they are simply just trying to do their jobs.'

In a press statement, Ms Clarke added: 'Our roadworkers have the right to carry out repairs and improvements safely and we ask all drivers to follow signed routes and never enter restricted areas.'

National Highways also highlighted that these incidents had, in some cases, led to roads being completely closed 'to avoid workers being put in danger'.

Following a series of particularly close calls, a section of the M1 in Hertfordshire was recently closed completely to keep workers safe, which meant drivers had a 10-mile diversion, the national operator said.

Sinead Ryan, traffic management foreman for HW Martin, said: 'People don't always realise how dangerous our job can be. We work close to live traffic and, while we can do everything possible to keep ourselves safe, we can't control the actions of drivers.

'When someone ignores a closure or drives into a work area, it only takes a second for someone to get hurt. There are real people working behind those cones and all we're trying to do is get home safely at the end of the day.'

Chair of National Highways' Incursion and IPV Working Group and group chief operating officer at Breedon Group, James Haluch, said: 'Good data is fundamental. Understanding not just how many incursions occur, but why and how they happen, allows us to identify trends, target solutions and continually raise the bar on how we protect people working on our roads.

'The Incursions Working Group has been building this evidence base from over 25,000 recorded incursions and turning that learning into practical solutions for coming up to 10 years – including guidance on areas such as determined vehicles, alongside trials, innovation, Raising the Bar documents and the sharing of good practice across the industry.'

Across all regions in England, a total of 1,633 incursions were recorded across England's motorways and major A roads last year.